An interesting insight into the comings and goings of the hub.

Throughout the story the Torchwood team have to deal with five or six different completely disconnected threats, almost making this story feel a little like an anthology looking back on it rather than a single novel.

There is, of course, something linking everything together, a strange character named 'James', a member of Torchwood who's apparently been here since the beginning, but obviously seeing the TV show, has never appeared otherwise. The parallels with the TV Episode 'Adam' are obvious, and unfortunately it's a comparison that doesn't exactly help Border Princes.

That's definitely not to say this is a bad story, the threats they have to face are all interesting in their own unique ways, all things I could see full episodes about, fleshing them all out a little more, they range from the planet-ending to the mostly harmless, and the way they're all shown here along side each other does a great job of being a 'Torchwood Variety Pack' of sorts. All sides of what Torchwood faces here are showcased, with everything just being 'another day in the office', nothing given much more focus than the others (apart from James of course), unlike the TV show where End of the World scenarios are saved for big finales..

Another thing I want to talk about here is the characterisation. Tosh and Ianto don't get much to do (though I do like the sense of comraderie that we get of the whole team's interactions), and while Owen doesn't get too much, he's done really solidly, especially his interactions with James. Jack has some great moments with Gwen, his frustration towards the team not doing as well as they could is an interesting character beat, and his apology to Gwen about it later in the story makes it just work for me. James is an interesting case, there's a lot of time dedicated to him, and I'm not sure quite how I feel about it. It's interesting to see from his eyes, but I feel that time could have been used for the rest of the team rather than this character that's exclusive to a single story, and then there's Gwen... This is very much Torchwood Season One Gwen, cheating on Rhys with James right from the start and it's not a great look for that to be the aspect of her character that's given the most attention. That said, I think it's done here a lot better than the show, she uses it to reflect on her relationship with Rhys, and very nearly breaks up with him for Rhys, something I don't think Season One Gwen would have done at all. As already mentioned too, her interactions with the rest of the team, especially her conflicts with Jack, are done really well, it's just a shame that's not the main way she's shown here.